Budget compromise hits lawmakers desks

Wednesday

TALLAHASSEE (AP) - Taxes won't being rising, but university tuition will increase again as part of a nearly $70.4 billion election year budget compromise that hit Florida lawmakers' desks Tuesday.

The spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is $3.9 billion more than the current state budget but lawmakers still are referring to it as austere.

It would increase public school spending slightly - $1.22 per student - but Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospitals and nursing homes would drop by 7 percent. Nursing homes, though, could get some relief if Congress boosts Medicaid funding for the states.

House Speaker Larry Cretul said his chamber's budget goals included avoiding new taxes, preventing cuts in public school spending and providing enough reserves to maintain Florida's AAA bond rating.

Another goal was to avoid spending stimulus money for operating and program expenses that will remain when the federal program expires next year, said Cretul, R-Ocala.

"With the cooperation of our Senate partners, we met those four principles during this exceptionally challenging budget session," Cretul said. "As a result, Florida is well-poised for job-creation and the return to a more prosperous economy."

Getting printed copies of the compromise budget into the hands of lawmakers at 2:59 p.m. Tuesday meant the 60-day legislative session can end on time Friday. That's due to a 72-hour waiting period required by the Florida Constitution before the House and Senate vote on it. Lawmakers cannot make any more changes in the document, just vote it up or down.

Budget chairmen for the House and Senate settled their final differences just before midnight Monday but not before adding millions more in spending for a variety of purposes including libraries, emergency generators for the town of Golden Beach, restoration of a box car at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg and building a senior center in Miami's Little Havana, complete with a domino room.

Public library funding was the last issue resolved. The House initially wanted to eliminate state aid for the libraries, then compromised at $11.7 million before finally accepting the Senate's $21 million proposal, the minimum needed to get $9 million in federal matching money.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who oversees the library aid program, was on hand for the agreement.

"It was an effort on a lot of people's part convincing members of the legislature how important library services are," Browning said. "What we've found is that as the economy has gone down library services have gone up, libraries have been swamped."

Browning said some of the credit belonged to Paul Clark, a Tallahassee area librarian who used vacation days and other personal time, to stand near budget meetings rooms with signs urging lawmakers to restore the library funding. Clark was back in the Capitol on Tuesday with another sign thanking lawmakers.

While taxes aren't going up in the 2010-11 budget, the Legislature a year ago approved about $2 billion in new revenues by raising cigarette taxes and a wide range of motor vehicle fees. Attempts to roll back some of the motor vehicle fees this year failed.

University students face an 8 percent increase in tuition in the budget but it could go as high as 15 percent. Individual universities have the authority, with approval from the Board of Governors, to raise them another 7 percent. Last year, the Legislature also ordered an 8 percent increase and all 11 schools went to the full 15 percent.

Before Monday, budget negotiators had decided to keep average per-student funding in kindergarten through 12th grade at its present level, but during the final round of offers they agreed to raise it by $1.22. That would boost the statewide average to $6,843.51 although it can vary from one school districts to another.

Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who chaired the House's budget panel, said the increase, slight as it is, is significant because it shows "education's a priority for us even in an era of economic austerity."

Several final spending items that Rivera and Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, agreed on are contingent on getting $880 million more in federal Medicaid assistance that would free up state dollars for other purposes. If Congress approves the additional Medicaid money the 7 percent rate reduction for nursing homes would be cut to 5 percent.

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